Direction of WiFi antenna

Solution 1:

Most routers have omni-directional antennas (which send the signal in all directions except in the direction of the "stick" - actually some signal even goes a little up there, but the main part goes "around"). So, no in most cases.

If the router is equipped with some kind of directional antenna, then the direction would matter.

Some links on the subject:
wifi antenna types
WiFi antenna

Just one other thing ... HeatMapper - check it out (courtesy of Molly). It is a wonderful little application for measuring the signal with very nice visualization properties. Lemon easy to use.

Solution 2:

I have tried moving the aerials, pointing them in different directions however, when it comes down to it, I have personally only seen it improve the signal about half of the time and it is not always noticeable.

There is no way to know if it will work with yours in advance, but from my observations, pointing it in a single direction sometimes gives you a tiny (And I mean tiny) better signal if you were right on the edge - I am talking about when moving your laptop a few CM means the difference between a signal and no signal.

If you have a fairly descent signal, I have not seen any improvement what so ever for moving an aerial. My guess would be that the benefit of the signal reflecting off of the walls and objects outweighs the benefit of having the aerial pointing directly at you.